Community Dance Pedagogies: A Meta-Analysis of How Inclusive Dance Practice Can Be Achieved

We recently conducted a meta-analysis of the outcomes and benefits available through community dance practice. Our research concluded that dance is valued by diverse communities for the capacity to foster inclusion, imagination, and identity, in turn enhancing an overall sense of well-being. Our focus, however was on the different pedagogies that fostered such outcomes. Community dance carries a set of teaching and learning values that we unpack, and we identify “how” pedagogical practice is facilitated in community dance classes, how facilitators achieve success, and what they define as success. As we analyzed the randomly selected 24 case studies of our meta-analysis, we paid attention to what was achieved and what the success indicators were in each study. We were curious about how the community dance activity was enlivened, activated, taught, and received by the participants. Our study revealed a list of pedagogical characteristics that fostered positive community dance outcomes.